Looking for someone to source your staff? Ask, does your consultant do all or any of this?

I’ve written quite a few times (well maybe more than a few times) on what job seekers should look for in a recruitment consultant. But I’ve not talked about what employers should expect from their side of the recruitment desk.

If you’re an employer looking for a recruiter (either internal or external) to work for your business, what skills should you look for?

Having recruited both internally and externally, built up a significant pipeline of job seekers via social media, and helped hundreds of people market themselves to find jobs, I think I’m qualified to have my say on the topic.

Given we’re in a global sourcing environment, with instant access to time saving technology, here is a list, in no particular order, of skills you might want to consider in your recruiter.

You want someone with true consulting experience.

By this I mean, someone who is able to look critically at what you think you require as an employer, and tell you whether that aspiration is realistic – or not.

Consider whether your consultant has life experience.

With my clients who are seeking help with marketing themselves, I frequently get to hear horror stories about why they may be leaving or have left their previous jobs.

They’re unsure about whether to disclose or not, as they fear the recruiter will come down on the side of the employer.

We all know that there are always many sides to issues that come up in people’s jobs. Many of these do relate to a wrong cultural fit, someone not being in the right job, and of course the boss who is toxic.

In your recruitment consultant, you want them to be able to understand enough of human behaviour to put applicants at ease to understand them as a whole person, and who is able to make a judgment about how to apportion the fault, if appropriate.

That way the recruiter can make realistic assessment about their fit for your organisation.

Ask your consultant about their networks.

I had a conversation with an ex headhunter with a big online and offline network. He told me that it took him all of four hours to locate a potential applicant for a client. And that was after an agency had failed to source someone through traditional means.

Is your consultant using all the online and social tools available to make hiring easier and more transparent?

Searching for a Payroll Adviser last week I filmed a Google Hangout on Air with the employer. It took all of 10 minutes and was automatically uploaded to YouTube, where with some savvy search engine optimisation it will continue to be visible for much longer than any advertisement on Seek.

Does your consultant really understand what building a talent pipeline means?

I don’t see many in the recruitment industry do this well, or at all.

Recruitment seems still to be a lot about a transaction. A job comes up, and advert gets placed, and a lot of hard work goes into screening, recruiting and rejecting – with a lot of disappointed people all around.

To me a pipeline is simply a warmed up and ready network. This easy to develop using off the shelf technology such as mailchimp or aweber, and a desire to provide some solid information.

There’s a lot more I am going to add to this list, now I’ve started my rant.

But if you’re consultant is not doing all of what I suggest, perhaps your search for talent should start with a talented recruiter.